1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information processing device and a method of starting the information processing device in which the information processing device is started at a high speed in a process of updating a firmware of a screen display control part.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, information processing devices, including image forming devices, have a complicated structure and troubles arising in the information processing devices become increasingly complicated year by year. To remove the device troubles, a new firmware (or debugging information, etc.) is acquired at the information processing device through a network or an external recording medium and a previous firmware is updated by the new firmware.
However, when the firmware is updated, rebooting or starting of the information processing device is needed. For this reason, much time is required to complete the updating of the firmware. A conceivable method for shortening the starting time is to perform the starting of the information processing device using the hibernation.
The hibernation is a function of storing the initialized information of various hardware components, the register information, etc., existing in a volatile memory (RAM) upon start-up of the information processing device, into a nonvolatile memory (ROM) immediately before turning off the power of the information processing device. By using the hibernation function, it is possible to quickly read the stored information from the nonvolatile memory (ROM) and rewrite it to the volatile memory (RAM) when starting the information processing device next time. The initialization setting and communication setting processes which require a certain period of time can be omitted, and it is possible to perform the starting of the information processing device at a high speed.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-319667 discloses a high-speed starting method based on the hibernation function which is aimed at starting the information processing device at a higher speed. In this method, a portion of the main memory unit that is actually used is determined, and the process of transmitting data of other portions of the main memory unit to the fixed memory unit is omitted.
However, there is another high-speed starting method for a screen display control part. In this method, a snapshot of a display screen is stored in the ROM, and, at a time of starting the information processing device next time, the snapshot stored in the ROM is developed to the RAM. In the case of using this method, if the firmware of the screen display control part is updated, a new snapshot of a display screen must be reconstructed. The snapshot herein means the initialized information of various hardware components and the register information which exist in the work area of the RAM at a certain instant. The snapshot may include, for example, the screen display information used for displaying an operation screen in the information processing device.